Take a Happiness Initiative Leadership Training

Happiness Initiative Leadership Trainings are deeply participatory, providing a setting where you give and gain experience. By the end of the training, you will have action-ready tools, resources and knowledge for taking a leadership role in the happiness/beyond GDP movement. After taking the training, Happiness Leaders have worked at the city, neighborhood, and campus level, become involved in politics, given talks, and taught academic and professional training courses based on the training received. See example projects conducted by Happiness Leaders. profiled by the OECD wikiprogress.

Register Now for A Happiness Leadership Trainings

July 29 and 30, 2017 in Seattle: Register for the July Training Here.Guest speakers for July Happiness Leadership training: Beth Ann Morrison, Ph.D. candidate & board member of the Happiness Alliance will lead a visioning session.Scott Cloutier, Ph.D, professor at Arizona State University & board member of the Happiness Alliance will lead a session on community happiness activism.

October 21 and 22 in Seattle: Register for the October Training Here​October training session features a new module: Happiness in Public Policy. Trainees will gather lessons and tools based on experience with governments for using happiness data and implementing happiness policy.

Happiness Initiative Leadership Training Topics

Happiness Initiative Leadership Trainings impart the knowledge and skills for joining the happiness movement. We cover two core topics and supplementary topics as meets the goals and circumstances of your cohort. We emphasize learning about the happiness movement, including the successes and lessons gathered over the years, sharing from the experience and expertise brought to the group by participants, and building ongoing community. Trainings draw from working in communities since 2010; from participation in the 2012 UN High Level Meeting Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm civil society working group; 2015 OECD 5th World Forum Statistics, Knowledge and Policy: Transforming Governments, Changing Lives; 2017 Dialogue for Global Happiness at World Government Summit; and 2017 World Happiness Summit H-20 Government track, and other important happiness movement summits where Happiness Initiative Leadership Training instructors have been invited participants and presenters. At the end of the training, you will be invited to join the community of happiness leaders. ​

Core Topics:Who, What, Why and Where: the Global Happiness and Wellbeing Movement. This session will cover the science, policy and civic actions behind the happiness movement. We will review activities at the governmental level in Bhutan, the UK, Brazil and France. We will delve into the science that supports this movement, and provide resources for the participants use. The importance and need for subjective metrics will be explored. We will then survey the various NGOs in the EU and the US active in the happiness/beyond GDP movement. We will finish with discussions about communicate to various audiences including those who not aware of the movement, those who are resistant to social change as well as scientists, policy makers and the media.

How to Conduct a Happiness Initiative: the nuts and bolts We will go over the logistics of conducting a happiness initiative. This includes team building, timelines, subjective metrics, including the need for subjective metrics, and review of wellbeing surveys, objective indicators, happiness report card writing and levels of data analysis, conducting outreach to immigrant and refugee and other underserved peoples, conducting town meetings, projects and policy changes & final comprehensive report writing.The session will end with an exploration of the next steps for the happiness movement as called forth by experts, academics and grassroots activists in the happiness movement and how to make an impact.

Supplementary Topics

Giving a Happiness Talks: a lesson in action. A lesson on how to give a happiness talk patterned after the talk that has been presented to many companies, non-profits and campuses. The aim of this talk will be for participants to walk away able to give a happiness talk to various audiences, from the curious to experts. We will give pointers at critical junctures and discuss the session in a group setting. We will explore the link between personal happiness and social change and how to communicate as well as integrate the two area in a happiness initiative. This is a highly interactive session. Participants will have a chance to learn about the happiness movement, the Happiness Index and gain tips on how to give talks and presentations.

Raising Awareness: tips, tools and best practices for raising awareness about the importance of happiness, the role of happiness in society and life and happiness policy. We will go through examples of successful projects and programs conducted in neighborhoods and cities across the US and elsewhere. An overview of the risks and means for managing them with simulated examples will conclude the session.

Personal Happiness: How does the field of positive psychology fit to the work for a new economic paradigm. We will explore the nexus and disjoint between individual happiness and social change. Tools and resources for presenting and communicating with various audiences from children, youth or economically disadvantaged people will be provided and reviewed. We will conclude the session with a synopsis of the key leverage points for the happiness movement. ​​Happiness Policies: What is a happiness policy screening tool, who is using it, and how can you use it? In this session we learn about how to screen policies and programs using a happiness screening tool based on Bhutan's GNH policy and program screening tools. We then explore what happiness policy looks like and could look like in an open appreciative inquiry process setting. The session concludes with an exercise using the policy screening tool.

What people who have took the training have to say:I have had the pleasure of participating in Laura Musikanski’s excellent Happiness Leadership Training events. I highly recommend these workshops for those who want to develop practical skills to build happier communities or learn about the GNH philosophy.Tom Barefoot, Co-founder of Gross National Happiness USA (gnhusa.org)

In May of 2014, I attended the Happiness Leadership Training as part of my research into the Happiness Movement. As a PhD candidate writing my dissertation on the happiness movement, the training exceeded my expectation in terms of what I learned about how to bring purpose and meaning of one's own life, and happiness and well-being to one’s community. I keep in touch with Laura very often, as in addition of making me personally happy whenever we talk, she is a resource of knowledge and experience you cannot find anywhere else. This training is done in an interactive and loving way that contributes to your life as an individual, and as a member of a company, an organization and a community.Anat Fanti, Doctoral Candidate, Bar-Ilan University

Gain the knowledge, tools, resources and community for making a difference in your life and in your community.

The GNH and the GPI are a valuable lens to opening up discussion about well-being in our communities. Using GNH as a policy screening tool has helped community leaders look at potential projects in new ways and explore how it contributes to the vitality of the communities and the people who live there. Laura's Happiness Initiative Leadership Training is a great introduction for community leaders, organizers, and advocates who are searching for tools to shed light in new ways on today's complex issues. -Lori Rothstein, Associate Extension Professor of Leadership and Civic Engagement at University of Minnesota Extension

Register Now for A Happiness Leadership Trainings

July 29 and 30, 2017 in Seattle: Register for the July Training Here.Guest speakers for July Happiness Leadership training: Beth Ann Morrison, Ph.D. candidate & board member of the Happiness Alliance will lead a visioning session.Scott Cloutier, Ph.D, professor at Arizona State University & board member of the Happiness Alliance will lead a session on community happiness activism. ​October 21 and 22 in Seattle: Register for the October Training Here​​